7/06/2009 @ 10:00PM

Female Gamers On The Rise

Log on to popular online shooter games like “Call of Duty” or “Battlefield: 2142″ and you’re not likely to hear female voices coming through the microphones of your squad mates. A young man’s tenor–or rumble–is more often the norm here, as well as communications laced with profanity and swagger (after all, half of the fun of detonating your opponents is bragging about it).

But companies are increasingly targeting a wider female audience as a means to grow brands and start new franchises. Accordingly, the percentage of female gamers is expanding as more games come to the market that appeal to them. New research from NPD Group shows that the number of female gamers increased to 28% of all U.S. console gamers compared with 23% a year ago. NPD wouldn’t disclose the total number of female players but said the percentage increase reflects the fact that 2 million more girls and women started playing games in the past 12 months.

Much of that rise is likely due to the popularity of
Nintendo’s
Wii, says NPD. The console is easy to use, and its games appeal to a wide audience.

Another feature that makes the Wii attractive to females is, says Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, the ban on sexist material and graphic violence in games that play on its hardware. One of the most popular Wii titles, for example, is “Wii Fit,” a series of exercises using a balance board hooked up to the console. The title has sold 7.4 million copies in the U.S., says NPD.

The Wii is just the latest Nintendo machine to draw a female audience into a medium once dominated by teenage boys. Nintendo’s portable game systems, the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS, both started to attract female gamers earlier this decade. Both started to attract female gamers earlier this decade with games such as “Nintendogs,” which was specifically targeted to girls. The title simulates caring for a pet, and players can use the DS’s touchscreen to stroke their virtual dog as well as take it for walks. The game was a huge hit for Nintendo.

French games publisher Ubisoft saw an opportunity, says Pachter, and re-jiggered its “Petz” line of games for consoles and hand-held systems a few years ago. The company followed that success with “Imagine” games–a line that includes activities like babysitting, ballet and cooking–which have sold 4.3 million copies in the U.S.

The trick for game companies is to make mainstream titles that appeal to both sexes. One of the rare examples is the Sims series, which centers on caring for a virtual family’s day-to-day needs.

Girls who get into games early tend to enjoy popular hits such as “Guitar Hero,” the “Tony Hawk” skateboarding series or even more “hardcore” titles like the “Fallout” series, says Pachter. “I think the biggest obstacle to growing the female gaming community is the trash talk that goes on in the online area,” Pachter says.

Those obstacles probably won’t stop the female-gamer market from growing, though. Mobile gamers and the most hardcore segment–players who spend 40 hours a week glued to the screen–also saw jumps in the number of female players this year, NPD says.